Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Adapting to urban ecosystems: unravelling the foraging ecology of an opportunistic predator living in cities

  • Published:
Urban Ecosystems Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The increasing urbanisation of the natural environment affects species differently. While most species cannot cope with these human impacts, others can persist or may even be favoured in these anthropogenic ecosystems. Among the different urban-adapted wildlife species, the populations of different species of opportunistic gulls have increased in urban areas and some have established breeding populations at a global scale. Although the ecology of these predators is relatively well-known in their natural environment, accurate knowledge about their urban ecology is very scarce. Here, we investigated the foraging ecology (habitat use, spatial movements and feeding) of an urban population of yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) inhabiting the city of Barcelona (north-eastern Spain). We examined the diet of this urban population by analysing the stomach contents of chicks distributed throughout the urban area of Barcelona. The foraging movements of breeding gulls were investigated using GPS devices and habitat landscape information. The results show that this urban population of yellow-legged gull exploits different food resources, highlighting the consumption of urban birds and marine resources from fishery discards. In line with the diet results, GPS tracking data indicated that although yellow-legged gulls were able to use different types of habitats close to the city, they mainly foraged in urban and fishing port areas. In conclusion, yellow-legged gulls have adapted to exploit the food resources associated with urban environments. This study provides useful information to discuss management options measures to control the yellow-legged gull populations nesting in urban areas.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the staff of the Zoo of Barcelona and the Institute of Marine Sciences - CSIC, especially Toni Lombarte, Sara Soto and Pablo Cermeño for their help in the otolith identification, spatial analysis and trapping procedures, respectively. All work procedures followed national and regional regulations. Sarah Young revised the English grammar. This study is part of the BCN-Gulls project funded by the Barcelona Zoo Foundation and the Ramón y Cajal project (RYC-2015-17809) led by J.N. This study is part of the Master’s thesis of A.M. All fieldwork was conducted in accordance with the Spanish and EU legislation on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joan Navarro.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 2583 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Méndez, A., Montalvo, T., Aymí, R. et al. Adapting to urban ecosystems: unravelling the foraging ecology of an opportunistic predator living in cities. Urban Ecosyst 23, 1117–1126 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00995-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00995-3

Keywords

Navigation